[jim_is_alive702]

Hey all,
My brother needs to pick his options for year 10/11...he has cerebral palsy and his school want him to do BTEC's in science instead of gcse science...Firstly will doing a BTEC in a core subject hinder him when it comes to applying to uni? And are their any disabled students who could share their experience of doing the sciences (As my parents think he will struggle with practical experiments and the like) Thank you all

[Austen9]

in my opinion bTECS are much worse than gcses and ususally a sign of a students academic ability. however science gcse hardly requires alot of practical assesment which is too strenuous. most of it is in groups anyway so.... shud be ok for gcses in my opinion

[fidrildi]

I'm going with a no as I never took my GCSEs and still managed to go to uni [and received offers from some very good ones] with a BTEC ND. GCSEs aren't worth the paper they're written on unless you need to fall back on them because of your a-level/whatever you obtain grades. Though that's purely my opinion.

[Toffee_Kid]

GCSE's are preferred by the top ranking universities (top 40 or so) than BTEC's, so if he is physically and mentally able to do GCSE's then that would be the best route.

BTECs are all coursework based, however GCSE's are predominantly exam based, so if he has difficulty with exams then BTEC's will definitely bring him the better grades. If he's good at revising for and taking exams though, push the school to let him take GCSE's

As for practicals, in year 11 there is practical coursework that forms a part of the qualification, but teachers can offer him some physical help, and as long as he can evaluate the results etc. he'll be fine.

[k9ruby]

Hey all,
My brother needs to pick his options for year 10/11...he has cerebral palsy and his school want him to do BTEC's in science instead of gcse science...Firstly will doing a BTEC in a core subject hinder him when it comes to applying to uni? And are their any disabled students who could share their experience of doing the sciences (As my parents think he will struggle with practical experiments and the like) Thank you all

Hi there!

I have just been diagnosed with severe dyspraxia and mild ataxic cerebal palsy.

I did a BTEC FD in Science 2 years ago.

They are fantastic- most unis will accept them, they are based in real life, no exams (apart from a couple of in-centre assessed praticals- which the exam board will happily grant assistants for, normally TA/LSA's you normally have to help) and it is entirely coursework based. WARNING: Miss the tiniest bit of coursework and the whole things gone.

All the Sixthforms and Unis I have researched love them as they are very 'real world' and are also worth 4 GCSEs.

At level '2' the grading is eqivilant to this:

D* D* D* D* = A* A* A* A*

D D D D = A A A A

M M M M = B B B B

P P P P = C C C C

PM me if you want to find out more

[jim_is_alive702]

Thank you to all the responses so far =) God being a big sister is stressful xD His disability is mild (Though I worry he is becoming to dependent on the lovely folk who help him at school) Mentally he is capable though relatively low confidence has him believing he isn't particularly intelligent It doesn't help that my parents cast me in the role of the big sister who he has to live up to...

[Titch89]

If he's capable of doing the GCSE, then there's no reason why he shouldn't.

[FireDeuce]

Originally Posted by k9ruby

All the Sixthforms and Unis I have researched love them as they are very 'real world' and are also worth 4 GCSEs.

At level '2' the grading is eqivilant to this:



D D D D = A A A A

I'd say BTECs are 'worth' four GCSEs. In reality, nobody thinks that getting DDDD means you got 4As.

Doing BTEC rather than GCSE completely depends on what your brother is good at, rather than his disability. None of the practical work in GCSE means that he would be excluded from doing GCSE, it is all in groups/partners and im sure plenty of people do GCSEs with disabilities and so there are ways to overcome difficulties. Like was said before, if he is not good with exams, do BTEC, but do GCSE as a preference.
Get your parents to speak to the head of year, they will tell them the score than GCSE practical coursework are few and far between (1 for each science I believe) and they have to make allowances anyway.



Wow that turned into a long post :/